“I wish we could stay another week,” my six-year-old son, Colin, said with a groan on the last day of our vacation. I didn’t blame him. We looked forward to our annual week at the Jersey Shore all year. Thirteen of us—my mom, my siblings, our spouses and kids—rented the second floor of a large summerhouse. The cousins had fun camping out together in the living room with their sleeping bags. We all played board games and spent a lot of time on the beach. I would have loved to have another week there too.
“Sorry, buddy,” I told Colin, “but we can’t afford it.”
“What if I prayed for it?” he asked.
“You can pray for anything you want,” I told him, heading for the bathroom to check for orphaned toothbrushes. “But we’ve got to go home today.”
“No, Mom,” Colin said, following me. “I mean I’ll pray that we can have an extra week next summer. I’ll pray all year.”
I told him it was a great idea, but once we got home I had second thoughts. We had never been able to come up with the money for a two-week stay. Maybe I should be reminding Colin that sometimes God says no to our prayer requests. But I couldn’t bring myself to do it. All year long when Colin said his prayers, he would mention the extra week at the beach house. Often I prayed along with him. I wanted that extended vacation too!
The next summer found us back with our whole family at the same beach house—for one week only. Colin didn’t seem too disappointed as we were packing up to leave on our last day.
Maybe he already understands that God doesn’t always say yes, I thought.
Just then, the phone rang. My mom answered it. When she hung up, she looked stunned.
“That was the house’s owner,” she said. “The people staying here next week just cancelled. He’s offering it to us for a bargain price.”
That bargain price was just low enough for us to cover. It was our family’s only two-week holiday, thanks to Colin.
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